Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/267

256 the house, and passed a vote of censure on the new ministry; which, after some ineffectual struggles, was compelled to retire. The. Duke of Portland now became first lord of the treasury, Lord John Cavendish chancellor of the exchequer, Mr. Burke, as before, paymaster of the forces, and Mr. Fox and Lord North joint-secretaries of state, in what was called the coalition administration. BURKE As this union of political interest was the most unpo- pular measure adopted in the present reign, and that which it has, above all others, been found most difficult to reconcile with purity and consistency of principle, it may be necessary to state what has been offered in apo- logy, at least as far as Mr. Burke is concerned. It is well known to those in the least conversant in the polities which immediately preceded this period, how uniformly Lord North was upbraided for his conduct throughout the whole course of the American war: every thing that could attach to a bad ministry was laid to his charge, except perhaps the solitary exception of corruption in his own person, which was not much, while he was continually accused of being the mover of a mass of corruption in others; and as Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke were the two leading champions of the house of commons, in their several speeches will be found invectives of such a nature, as to men, judging of others in the ordinary habits of life, per- haps would be thought insurmountable barriers to their coalition. But we are told, that forming an administration upon a broad bottom of political interest is quite a different thing from contracting a private friendship: in the former many things are to be conceded, in regard to times and circumstances, and the opinions of others; in the latter, the question of right and wrong lies in a narrower com- pass, and is more readily judged of by the parties and their friends. Mr. Burke, therefore, may say, " that, in his several attacks on Lord North, he considered him as a principal promoter and encourager of the American war, a war which he held destructive of the interests and con-